


Three Choices

by Crazy4Hummels



Category: Football RPF, Real Person Fiction, Sports RPF
Genre: Bayern München, Bromance, FIFA Ballon d'Or, Fluff, German Football, German National Team, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-14
Updated: 2015-01-14
Packaged: 2018-03-07 13:53:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3175378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazy4Hummels/pseuds/Crazy4Hummels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski exchange a series of texts as they watch FIFA Ballon D'Or 2014.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Choices

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't stop myself from writing this, I blame the zillion Schweinski fics I have eaten up in the last couple of weeks.  
> Please read and review, it'll encourage me to write more. :)

Bastian Schweinsteiger was excited for this year’s Ballon d’Or. Not only because his friend and team mate Manuel Neuer was on the short list for the top prize but also because he had a feeling his country was going to dominate in most of the categories tonight. As he took a seat in front of the large screen (specially set up for tonight’s occasion) with his other Bayern teammates at a secluded corner of the hotel lounge, his phone buzzed.

It was Lukas, on Viber.

_Going to watch the BallonDor?_

_Yep, with everyone._

_Where are you?_

_Home._

_How was the charity event last night?_

_Successful, the after party was awesome too. My friend DJ Teddy-O knows how to rock a party._

_Yeah, I saw your tweet._

Bastian typed back.

The young Bavarian was so busy with his typing that he never realized when Thomas sat next to him. He almost got startled when Thomas asked, “Who are you texting with?” “Lukas,” without looking up from his phone, Bastian replied nonchalantly.

“Oh! Say ‘Hi’ to him from me,” Thomas said with a genuine smile.

The inaugural music of the award ceremony was starting on the big screen. He wrote back to Lukas,

_Thomas says hi. The ceremony is about to start. I’ll text you during the breaks. Fingers crossed for Manu._

_Okay. But only for Manu? What about Jogi?_

Smiling, Bastian wrote,

_He doesn’t need it, he WILL WIN. Laters!_

The next half an hour the two friends remained quiet. When the announcer revealed FIFA WORLD XI, Lukas was the first to break the silence.

_David Luiz? Thiago Sliva? Iniesta? WTF!_

Chuckling, the young man wrote back,

_Luiz and Sliva aren’t that bad. Iniesta..err..he’s a great player but he’s old. I guess it’s more like paying a tribute to him._

_Then FIFA should have given a life-time achievement award to him, not a place in World XI. This is a complete joke! And if Luiz and Silva were good, then Boa and Mats were excellent. One of them at least deserved to be on that list!_

Bastian could almost feel his friend’s fury, grinning, he shouted for Boateng’s attention who was sitting on his opposite sofa. “Boa! Luki says you and Mats deserved to be on that list more than Luiz and Silva.”

Smiling wide, Boa said, “Give Poldi my heartiest thanks.”

Laughing at the remark, the Bavarian wrote to his friend,

_Calm down, buddy. It’s just an award show._

_Yeah, an award show for FOOTBALL!!_

Laughing at Lukas’ childishness, the German captain returned his focus on the big screen. When Ralf Kellermann won the Women’s coach of the year award, he sent another text to Lukas.

_I’m glad for Ralf. He’s a great coach._

Lukas didn’t reply to his text, Bastian guessed his friend had already started to fidget as the beautiful host Kate Abdo announced the next award was Men’s coach of the year. And it was obviously none other than Jogi Low. The whole lounge erupted in claps and cheers as almost half of the Bayern players were from the German National team. As initial jubilation died down, Bastian took his seat and checked his phone again. He’d got several notifications from Lukas as he already updated all of his social media sites by congratulating his coach. Grinning ear to ear, Bastian sent another text to his best friend,

_I told you so._

This time Lukas quickly replied with a wink emoticon,

 _You have a gift of foresight_.

As the ceremony moved on, James Rodriguez, Nadine Kessler won Pukas award and FIFA Women Player of the year, respectively. Bastian was happy for Nadine, she was an excellent player, and she deserved to win this. The way Germans were winning every category, it was truly the start of German dominance over world football, the German captain reflected excitedly.

After a short musical interlude, when it was time for the final award to announce, the hotel lounge grew eerily quiet. Bastian glanced over his teammates and most of them looked dead serious. Shifting his attention towards the show, Bastian was praying that Thierry Henry announces Manu’s name.

Unfortunately, Henry announced Cristiano Ronaldo’s. As expected.

Bastian sighed dramatically. Thomas, who was seating next to him, groaned rather loudly. His other teammates were making sounds of disappointment as well. They all knew it was a long shot but they had hoped fervently.

“It was a mistake. I should have voted for Neuer,” someone commented from behind.

Turning around, Bastian saw it was Robert Lewandowski who was wearing a look of remorse on his face as he chatted with Mario.

Frowning, the Bavarian interrupted their conversation, “So, who did you vote for?”

Robert looked at him rather sheepishly as he said, “Ronaldo.”

Nodding, he said, “There’s nothing to feel sorry for. Ronaldo had a great year too and Neuer…He understands that this is the way voting works. Crowd favorite always wins.”

“It’s not that, I never put much thought onto it when I was picking the names.” Robert continued, “Not to mention, it was such a long time ago! Anyone could have changed their mind by the end of 2014 but we had to pick our choices in August! It’s just unfair, these stupid rules.”

Mario patted Robert’s back in a consoling manner and said, “It’s okay. Doesn’t matter now.”

Bastian was thinking the exact same thing about the rules of voting when his phone buzzed again with Lukas’ text.

_Are you sure it’s CR7 on stage? I can’t see anything past his hair gel._

Chuckling, Bastian wrote,

_Don’t be a sore loser, Luki. Show some sportsmanship._

Lukas didn’t reply next couple of minutes. Bastian was about to head for his room as it’s getting quite late when he got another text from Lukas. The text had an image attachment saying,

_Look what I found while I was perusing the BallonDor’s website! The list of who voted for whom!_

__

 

Intrigued, Bastian Schweinsteiger clicked on the image without thinking much. Looking at the picture for several seconds, the Bavarian quickly typed,

_What’s this?_

Couple of seconds later, Lukas replied,

_Evidence of your betrayal._

Bastian couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes. He wrote,

_Could you please stop acting like a drama queen for a second?_

_You’ve put up with my drama for ten years, what has changed?_

The young man from Cologne replied.

Annoyed, Bastian wrote,

_Luki, stay on topic! Now tell me again what’s wrong with my picks?_

Several seconds later, Lukas replied,

_If I have to point this out to you then you’re more stupid than I had imagined._

It had been a long day and the Bavarian could feel his patience was wearing thin. He wrote,

_It’s close to eleven. I am gonna hit the bed, I have an early practice session tomorrow._

_WAITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT_

Rolling his eyes for the second time, Bastian had to wait only a second when Lukas sent him another text.

_You voted for the Bayern Contingent, dude! Seriously, how bias can you get?_

Sighing at his best friend’s foolishness, he wrote back,

_In case you haven’t noticed, those Bayern players are also members of our Nationalmannschaft._

Some of Bastian’s team mates already left the lounge; he signaled Mario, who was waiting for him that he’ll be joining them in five minutes.

Lukas, in the mean time, replied,

_Okay, you may have a point there. But Thomas?_

Frowning, Bastian wrote,

_What’s wrong with my pick of Thomas? He scored important goals for us and in case you don’t remember, he was chosen second best player of the tournament at the WC!_

Lukas replied almost immediately,

_Don’t get mad, I’m just surprised that you didn’t pick Toni._

Nodding to himself, Bastian wrote,

_I was actually conflicted between Thomas and Toni._

_Yet you picked Thomas._

Irritated, he replied,

_It wasn’t an easy choice, god damn it!!_

_Are you sure there are no hard feelings between you and Toni?_

The Bavarian knew his friend was trying to tease him. Yet he could feel he was in no mood for Lukas’ antics. He wrote,

_Is there supposed to be?_

Lukas replied pretty quickly,

_Idk, he left Bayern for Madrid!_

Bastian wasn’t enjoying Lukas’ teasing anymore. Without thinking much, he wrote back,

_Luki, if I start to hold everyone responsible who had left Bayern so far then you would have come at the top of that list._

It wasn’t until couple of minutes Lukas sent him a reply.

_I’m sorry…I was just trying get on your nerve._

Sighing, Bastian realized his reply was harsher than he intended it to be.

_I’m sorry too. It was not fair to you._

Lukas wrote back,

_Does it still…bother you?_

Bastian typed quickly as he knew what his best friend was referring to.

_No._

_Then why did you mention it?_

_Idk._

_You know how it was Schweini, I couldn’t even if I wanted to. It’s the same with Arsenal._

Surprisingly, Lukas sounded apologetic. It wasn’t Lukas’ fault, for heaven’s sake! If anyone should be apologetic, it should be Bastian, not him. Sighing again, the young man wrote,

_It’s not about that. I guess…I miss you a lot, Luki. When you were at Bayern I'd got to see you everyday but now...I don’t!_

Bastian didn’t understand why suddenly he was missing his best friend this much. It’s not like they don’t see each other. They skype once a week and they are always texting, calling each other 24.7 still…Bastian missed his friend’s care free laugh and his bear tight hug, Lukas' hugs always made everything better for the Bavarian.

The young man concluded he was missing his friend more because of his recent turmoil in his personal life. Bastian’s on and off romance with Ana was taking a toll on him. Additionally, the guilt of breaking up with his long time girlfriend Sarah was eating him up too.

Lukas had already sent him couple of texts back to back while he was pondering over his life.

_I know. I wish it was different too._

_Hey, you do realize there’s a perk of moving to Inter, right?_

Smiling a little, Bastian wrote finally,

_What’s that?_

_We’re closer to each other now than we were two years ago. Only 491KM!!_

The Bavarian always found it difficult to stay maudlin whenever his best friend was with him. Grinning, he wrote,

_You have a valid point there. Soooo…When are you coming to visit me?_

_I could have today, if you weren’t staying at Doha!_

Lukas had added a pout emoticon face at the end of the text.

Feeling helpless at their situation, Bastian wrote sincerely,

_Sorry. It’s just damn difficult with our conflicting schedules._

_And that’s exactly why our ‘dates’ are extra-special whenever we meet._

The Cologne man added a wink emoticon this time with his reply.

Bastian couldn’t stop himself from laughing at his best friend's silliness. Yet that’s exactly why he loved him. Lukas wrote further,

_Basti, you know you can talk to me about anything, right?_

The Bavarian had no idea how much Lukas knew from the outside world (he must have seen his pictures with Ana, circulating all over internet) but he hadn’t talked to anyone about her so far, it simply didn’t feel right. However, he did send Lukas a short text after his official breakup with Sarah. Lukas was a good friend of Sarah’s as well; he deserved to know the news from him.

Unable to say anything else, Bastian simply wrote,

_Yeah._

Several seconds later, Lukas wrote back,

_I’m always here for you. And I miss you too, goofball._

Suddenly, the young man had a feeling that the hotel staff were looking at him weirdly as there's no one else with him in the lounge.

He typed fast,

_It’s getting late. I should get going. Talk more later._

_Wait, Basti!_

_What now?_

_Why didn’t you pick me instead? You know how good I was at the WC. You never would have won it without me!_

Bastian could feel Lukas’ teasing tone through the text, he wrote back, grinning cheekily.

_How silly of me. I really should have. Without your pranks we would have died of boredom in Brazil. Thanks for keeping the team motivated. Cheers!_

The Bavarian wrote further,

_May be you should be the vice-captain instead of Manu. I will talk to Jogi in our next meeting._

_You’re not serious, are you? You know I’m not fit for this type of things._

Lukas’ panicked tone was obvious; his best friend can be so gullible sometimes! Laughing, Bastian wrote back,

_Oh..I don’t know. You seem quite democratic and unbiased to me. You have all the qualities to be a captain._

_You are kidding me, right?_

Bastian went on without paying heed to Lukas’ reply.

_And I know it in my heart that you wouldn’t have any problem to pick three players for Ballon if you were in my position._

_Really? Since you know me oh-so-well, why don’t you guess my three picks?_

Grinning ear to ear, the Bavarian wrote,

_Easy-peasy._

_Bastian Schweinsteiger,_

_Bastian Schweinsteiger,_

_And, Bastian Schweinsteiger._

**Author's Note:**

> Robert admitting voting CR7 was a mistake, reference from here- http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/cristiano-ronaldo-ballon-dor-vote-4976084  
> Lukas at his charity event, referred from his instagram- http://instagram.com/p/xwRJ_QOJ-D/  
> Bayern Munich training in Qatar, Doha- http://www.bundesliga.com/en/liga/news/2014/0000310737.php


End file.
